Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to this motion.
It is a painful issue for many Canadians across the country as we have seen expressed from coast to coast.
Interestingly the crux of this argument seems to be the defence of some sort of freedom, yet at the same time we are talking about a failure of our system to protect the most vulnerable. In the cause of freedom and the championing of rights we have crossed over the line of rational thought when we can no longer protect the most vulnerable in our society. As we charge down the highway of rights and freedoms, we have made a grave error today if we let this stand the way it is.
I applaud the members of the House in my party and every party. There are some on the other side who are determined to put a quick end to this grave mistake.
We have had supreme court rulings in the past. They have had more wisdom on this issue than the current one. I am sure it has been referenced in the debates today. In the Butler case it was ruled that the access to pornographic material is not in the public interest. It is demonstrably harmful to society. For that very reason section 1 of the charter was called into effect and it was deemed to be illegal. There was no outcry there. In fact, Canadians were pleased to see that ruling. That is not the one we are faced with today. We are seeing just the opposite.
What concerns me is must we have more victims before we can determine if there is harm? We talked about the determination of harm being the criteria before we will decide whether it is reasonable to shut this kind of thing down. How much harm must we endure before we can say there has been enough? How many more children, victims, need to be involved in this kind of sick thing before we can say there has been enough?
Maybe we should not go overboard in determining harm but ask if there is any redeeming attribute of this material that would legitimize it. I would suggest there is absolutely not. Put the onus on the other side. Where is the redeeming attribute in this kind of material? How does it add to the health and safety of our children, our families and our community? It is not there.
In a charter world we seem to stop using our heads and we rely on legal arguments and highly articulated legalese. Somewhere we have lost sight that there is a victim at the end of all this and it is a child. It is tragic.
I have read material that talks about the impacts of pornography. Oftentimes those that are caught up in this cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality after a while and sooner or later they act out.
I know there are all kinds of studies and debates and people that articulate the different sides of this. However, if we asked 100 Canadians that very question whether they think that looking at this is going to distort our perception of reality, that we start to look at individual children as objects rather than individuals, of those 100 Canadians far and away the majority will say yes, it does distort reality. It is not an accurate picture of a child.
Interestingly, a paroled sexual offender was released in my riding not long ago. One of the conditions of the individual's parole was that he not avail himself, look at or expose himself to pornographic material. That was a condition of his parole. Here we have the court system and a judge saying that this would not work. This would not be good for this individual. This would distort his sense of reality again.
One court is saying do not touch it and another court is saying it is quite all right for people to avail themselves of this material and legitimize this market. It is wrong and we have an opportunity here today to fix it.
I know that many members in this House want to shut this down now which is what the Canadian people want to have happen. We can shut this down now and put an end to the continued victimization of children, the victims depicted in these horrible things. It is not a case of freedoms and rights. It is a case of children who are victims. It is a case of the children not only who are victims today in this material but the ones who will be impacted tomorrow if we allow this to continue and we allow the legitimization of this market to carry on.
I suggest that all Canadians are victims. If we allow a law like this one to stand, every Canadian is tarnished. The pride in our country and who we are as Canadians is diminished when we say to people from other countries that in Canada we think it is quite all right for people to look at and study this kind of pornographic material that depicts children. It diminishes all of us as Canadians. We are all victimized by this. It is just not acceptable.
To defend freedoms that fail to protect the most innocent is crossing over the line. Many of us here know it. We know it in our hearts. Today we have an opportunity to show the Canadian people that being a Canadian means something. We stand for something but we are not going to stand for this. Let us do it today.